The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Experimenting with six lots
by Mark Reaman
The town of Crested Butte will experiment and allow six so-called “micro lots” on one of its affordable housing blocks on the east side of town. Using three corner lots on block 79, infrastructure is currently being put in for future affordable units. While the shift to micro lots will add only one unit of density from the original plan since two of the lots were already zoned for duplexes, the move will allow for smaller single-family homes.
Under town regulations, the maximum size of a home is determined by the size of the lot. So with this action and a change in the zoning code, there could be a home built as small as 400 square feet or as large as 1,250 square feet, depending on the lot. The council will have to approve the change to the town zoning code to allow structures to be built on a lot with a minimum area of 2,750 square feet. Currently the minimum lot size is 4,000 square feet.
Councilman Jim Schmidt, who resides in the affordable Poverty Gulch subdivision, opposes the mini lot and micro house movement.
“We can accomplish the same goal with duplexes and they are cheaper to build and less expensive to heat,” Schmidt told the council at the July 20 meeting. “Poverty Gulch works great and I would like to try to duplicate those buildings over there. It is more efficient and prefab buildings keep the cost down. To talk about a house being 400 square feet—that’s a garage. I think it is too small a place for people.”
“I’m supportive of this move,” countered councilman Skip Berkshire. “It provides a mix of options that we currently don’t have in town. People said they were looking forward to building a house that they want. There are still duplex lots and multi-family lots over there in the same area, so we aren’t throwing them out. But this provides a nice mix and a different opportunity. I’ll bet those mini lots are the first ones to go.”
“It’s an experiment,” added councilman Glenn Michel. “We are trying something new and they can work on these corner lots. The trend is toward smaller, more energy-efficient houses. I think this is a good move.”
The rest of the council at the meeting agreed and voted 4-1 to proceed. Schmidt voted against the idea while councilmen Shaun Matusewicz and Chris Ladoulis were not at the meeting.
The shift to the six micro lots will add about $5,000 to the cost of the infrastructure installation. Yerman said he has a list of 82 people who have expressed interest in applying for a place in the new affordable housing blocks. Final density and guidelines for blocks 79 and 80 will be discussed by the staff and council in August.
